Table of Contents

Wrapper for Usage in C/C++

Overview

For Windows applications that are not .NET based, it may be possible to use NixUniversalSDK indirectly. For example, the SDK download provides a project NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper which allows for its usage in C/C++ applications.

The NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper contains single IDeviceScanner and IDeviceCompat instances. It provides a static interface to access these instances and also provides callbacks for device and scanner events. The project contains a basic implementation, but can be modified or expanded to better suit your specific application.

The wrapper project is part of the SDK examples which are available online.

Known limitations

  • The wrapper project is written in C# and is built to a self-contained native library using NativeAOT. NativeAOT builds use code-trimming and should specify runtime directives as described here. Note that the provided wrapper project has already declared these runtime directives; no further configuration is necessary.
  • If an import .lib library file is required for linking in C/C++ applications, this import library file will need to be manually generated (see Generating an import library).
  • As of February 2025, the wrapper project only supports x64, x86, and ARM64 builds
    • When using x86 builds, the calling convention is cdecl
    • The architecture limitations discussed here apply when using the wrapper. 32-bit (x86) builds do not support Bluetooth functionality when running on 64-bit (x64) architecture.

Building the wrapper project

It is recommended to build the wrapper from the command line using dotnet publish.

  1. Navigate to the NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper folder
  2. Run the dotnet publish -r <ARCH> -c Release command for the desired architecture(s). Valid options for <ARCH> include
    • win-x64
    • win-x86
    • win-arm64

For example, to build for win-x64:

dotnet publish -r win-x64 -c Release
  1. The published files will be available under bin/Release/net9.0-windows10.0.22621.0/<ARCH>/publish

Using the wrapper in a C/C++ project

After building the project, the output folder will also contain NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.h. This C/C++ header file contains macros and function declarations for the exported functions available in NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.dll. This file can be can be included in your C/C++ code to provide function declarations for the wrapper functions.

Tip

The API reference for the exported functions is available online.

Generating an import library

In some cases an import .lib file is necessary for linking against the wrapper assembly. It is possible to manually generate this file using the dumpbin and lib utilities provided with Visual Studio.

Create an exports file

  1. Open a Developer Command Prompt for VS2022.
    • For x64 builds, use x64 Native Tools command prompt.
    • For x86 builds, use x86 Native Tools command prompt.
    • For ARM64 builds, use the ARM64 Native Tools command prompt.
  2. Use the dumpbin tool to generate a list of exported symbols in the NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.dll assembly
dumpbin /EXPORTS <PATH_TO_DLL>
  1. Create a new text file NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.exports and add the text EXPORTS to the first line.
  2. Copy and paste the list of function names that were printed from the dumpbin tool. Keep only the function names.
    • The contents of the resulting exports file should be similar to the block shown below.
    • For convenience, you can copy and paste the block below verbatim, provided that you have not modified the exported functions in Exported.cs in the wrapper project.
EXPORTS
Device_Connect
Device_Disconnect
Device_GetBatteryLevel
Device_GetExtPowerState
Device_GetFieldCalibrationDue
Device_GetFieldCalibrationEnabled
Device_GetFieldCalibrationMaxDelta
Device_GetFirmwareVersion
Device_GetHapticFeedbackEnabled
Device_GetHardwareVersion
Device_GetId
Device_GetInterfaceType
Device_GetLastCalibrationDebug
Device_GetLastCalibrationStatus
Device_GetName
Device_GetNote
Device_GetPowerState
Device_GetProvidesDensity
Device_GetProvidesSpectral
Device_GetReferenceJavaTicks
Device_GetReferenceTemperature
Device_GetRgbFeedbackEnabled
Device_GetScanCount
Device_GetScanTemperature
Device_GetSerialNumber
Device_GetSoftwareVersion
Device_GetState
Device_GetSupportedModes
Device_GetSupportedReferences
Device_GetSupportsFieldCalibration
Device_GetSupportsHapticFeedback
Device_GetSupportsRgbFeedback
Device_GetSupportsTemperatureCompensation
Device_GetTemperatureCompensationEnabled
Device_GetType
Device_HasOptions
Device_InvalidateFieldCalibration
Device_IsModeSupported
Device_IsTileStringValid
Device_LedTest
Device_Measure
Device_ProvidesColor
Device_RegisterBatteryStateChanged
Device_RegisterCommandCompleted
Device_RegisterConnected
Device_RegisterDisconnected
Device_RegisterExtPowerStateChanged
Device_RunFieldCalibration
Device_SetFieldCalibrationEnabled
Device_SetFieldCalibrationMaxDelta
Device_SetHapticFeedbackEnabled
Device_SetRgbFeedbackEnabled
Device_SetTemperatureCompensationEnabled
GetSdkId
License_Activate
License_Deactivate
License_GetAllocations
License_GetAllowedDeviceTypes
License_GetExpiryJavaTicks
License_GetFeatures
License_GetLibraryVersion
License_GetLibraryWrapperVersion
License_GetState
License_GetUuid
License_IsDeviceTypeSupported
License_IsFeatureEnabled
Measurement_GetLastColorJson
Measurement_GetLastDensityJson
Measurement_GetLastHexCode
Measurement_GetLastJavaTicks
Measurement_GetLastMetadataJson
Measurement_GetLastModesJson
Measurement_GetLastSpectralJson
Measurement_GetLastStatus
Scanner_GetSortedResults
Scanner_GetState
Scanner_HasFoundDevice
Scanner_ListUsbDevices
Scanner_RegisterCreated
Scanner_RegisterScanResult
Scanner_RegisterStarted
Scanner_RegisterStopped
Scanner_Reset
Scanner_SearchForId
Scanner_Start
Scanner_Stop

Create an import library file

  1. Open a Developer Command Prompt for VS2022.
    • For x64 builds, use x64 Native Tools command prompt.
    • For x86 builds, use x86 Native Tools command prompt.
    • For ARM64 builds, use the ARM64 Native Tools command prompt.
  2. Using the lib tool and the NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.exports file from the previous step, generate an import library file.

For an x64 build:

lib /def:NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.exports /machine:x64 /out:NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.lib

For an x86 build:

lib /def:NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.exports /machine:x86 /out:NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.lib

For an ARM64 build:

lib /def:NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.exports /machine:ARM64 /out:NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.lib
  1. An import library NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.lib will be generated in the current folder. This file can be used to link against the NixUniversalSDK.Wrapper.dll assembly

Example C code

The wrapper project includes example.c located in the example-c folder. This example file demonstrates the usage of the NixUniversalSDK wrapper in a C application.

Next steps

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